Why Lebron's Better than Durant

Authors Note: This piece is a contradiction to the piece KD vs. LBJ if you want to see the original piece I am contradicting go to http://www.ryanlovesmilkandcookies.blogspot.com/2012/04/kd-vs-lbj.html. If you want to fully comprehend the information presented to you in this essay then please go to this link and read the KD vs. LBJ essay.

With five seconds on the clock your team down by two, the crowd holds their breath in anticipation. In the most important game of the year, a crucial game seven of the finals, who would you give the ball to? Kevin Durant or LeBron James? I myself along with anybody else with a brain would pick the best player in the league and future MVP LeBron James.


There are many things that are wrong with my colleague's essay “KD vs. LBJ”. First of all when your team is down by two with ten seconds on the clock, the crowd doesn’t roar with excitement; they hold their breath sitting on the edge of their seats in fear of their team might lose. Second of all why would you give it to Durant? If you give it to him, you know what he's doing… He is going shoot the ball. Knowing this you double or triple him and play good defense. With LeBron you not only need to double him but also play good defense off the ball because unlike Durant, LeBron is smart enough to pass it when he is covered.

I don't know how thoroughly my colleague looked at what came up on his Google search because when I searched “how many buzzer beaters has Kevin Durant made” the only games that came up was one against the Mavericks on December twenty-ninth, another six days ago against the Mavericks, and then it also shows the Milk and Cookies blog. So he's not as clutch as you think. Also if you think LeBron doesn’t perform in the fourth quarter, I’m going to call you what you are, a Liar! Just a few weeks ago LeBron scored seventeen straight points in the fourth quarter to narrowly escape a brutal upset from the Nets, and if you think the only reason LeBron scored as much as he did is because they were playing the Nets (one of the worst teams in the league), you're wrong. He also dropped another seventeen points against the Knicks in the fourth quarter during the playoffs.

The reason LeBron passed up the shot earlier this season is because he was playing smart (something the author of the milk and cookies blog says he doesn’t do). The reason it was smart and showed his basketball IQ was because when you are being double teamed there are three decisions you can make. The worst of the three would be to panic and throw the ball away. The next option you have is to put up a bad shot that usually doesn’t go in. The best of the three options is to find your teammate who was being guarded by the defender who came to double you. LeBron chose the third option because he used to and still does trust his teammate to make that shot when it counts. Also if Durant tried to do his so called “shimmy” on LeBron, I can tell you right now that LeBron would swat that ball out of the gym.

Another inconsistency with the “KD vs. LBJ” essay is that the author said that Kevin Durant is smarter and has a higher basketball IQ because he went to college. The only reason LeBron didn’t go to college is because he needed the money from an NBA contract to help his mom pay the bills. He did this because he loves his mom. Even if Kevin Durant went to college, he only went to college for one year, and all that year did was help him get almost as smart as LeBron. LeBron definitely has the higher basketball IQ.

Even if it says that Durant is smarter in NBA2K12, if you simulate a season, it always has LeBron’s team winning. Which, if you look at the big picture, that is all that matters, winning it all and getting the ring. Some may say this is because he has two great players in and Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade; but Durant has equally great players Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka. Also I believe Durant’s team has a better bench.

And let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, Last time I checked Durant had just as many rings as LeBron… zero. So if you ask me it’s a little early to be talking about rings, but if we’re going to talk about who’s gonna have more rings you can just say LeBron James because we both know that he is going to have more than Kevin Durant. After LeBron wins the NBA Finals this year the doubters will start to see just how great LeBron is and then the chain effect that has started years ago will keep on going.

Also the author of the “KD vs. LBJ” essay may be right about the wingspan differential but he was wrong about the height difference between LeBron and Durant . Durant is only one inch taller not two. Also every star has been dunked on over the years. Even the NBA great Shaquille O’Neil and All Star Dwight Howard have been slammed on. One thing he doesn’t mention though is that LeBron has about fifteen pounds more than him and is stronger which helps him back people down in the post so he doesn’t have to shoot the off balanced fade away shots that Kevin Durant is forced to put up due to his lack of strength. This also probably the reason that Durant hasn’t been dunked on by LeBron because he is too much of a girl to take the contact from LeBron's two hundred-fifty pound frame when LeBron comes driving into the lane.

There is a fairly large gap between LeBron's greatness and Durant’s near greatness right now, but not only is LeBron the better player, but he is definitely going to be this year’s MVP.